April 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 13, 1776).

“LINEN to be SOLD at the Manufactory in Union-street.”

Nearly a year after the battles at Lexington and Concord, many colonizers continued to support the American cause through the decisions they made in the marketplace.  Such efforts began before the Revolutionary War.  Colonizers attempted to use commerce as political leverage, departing from the imperial system they previously embraced.  They experienced a British Empire defined by commerce rather than conquest, one in which England produced goods and the colonies consumed them.  When Parliament enacted new commercial regulations and other measures the colonies found oppressive in the 1760s and 1770s, they enacted nonimportation agreements.  Simultaneously, they encouraged “domestic manufactures” in the colonies as alternatives to imported goods.

That movement led to the establishment of “the Manufactory in Union-street” in Philadelphia.  In the April 13, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the proprietors advertised “LINEN to be SOLD” there.  They also informed the public that they sought to hire two or three journeymen weavers who would enjoy “an advantageous seat of work.”  Yet “domestic manufactures” did not solely refer to goods produced in the colonies as opposed to those made elsewhere.  “Domestic manufactures” could also mean goods produced in homes, in domestic spaces, often by women.  Although not as fine as imported fabrics, wearing “homespun” cloth became a mark of distinction because of the political principles at play.  In addition to the journeymen to be employed “at the said factory,” the proprietors announced, “Weavers that have got looms in their own houses … will meet with good encouragement, the best prices, and constant employment.”  The “Manufactory in Union-street” served as a clearinghouse for textiles produced on site and in homes in and near Philadelphia.  It provided employment for local men and women and merchandise for consumers, allowing everyone involved to support the American cause as more and more colonizers considered the possibility of declaring independence rather than a redress of their grievances and a return to how the empire operated before the imperial crisis.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 13, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Providence Gazette (April 13, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 13, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 13, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 13, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 13, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 13, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 13, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 13, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Providence Gazette (April 13, 1776).

April 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Gazette (April 12, 1776).

“The LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE … situated on the Post-Road leading to NEW-YORK.”

In the spring of 1776, Thomas Allen announced his plans to open the “LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE” in New Haven.  He previously operated a similar business, advertising it in the New-London Gazette in the summer of 1773, but apparently that establishment closed at some point during the years that the imperial crisis intensified.  Now he acknowledged “the Want of Place for the Reception, Ease and Quiet of my old Friends and Customers,” those “Gentlemen Travellers” who previously stayed with him, and decided to open a new coffeehouse “At the House lately occupied by Capt. Freeman Crocker, on JORDAN PLAIN, adjoining the Brook, very pleasantly situated on the Post-Road leading to NEW-YORK, over the Rope-Ferry, and within 2 Miles and 3/4ths of NEW-LONDON Court-House.”  Allen expected that such a convenient location would attract patrons.

He also emphasized the amenities available at new London Coffee-House, especially “the best of Liquors … at the usual reasonable Prices.”  He resorted to an appeal that he used in his advertisement from 1773: with a wink and a nod, he listed a variety of spirits he stocked “For the Benefit of the Sick and Weakly.”  Those unfortunate souls could purchase “Choice Genuine LONDON MADEIRA,” “Old MALAGA,” “Red PORT,” and other drinks “by the Bottle or smaller Quantity.”  In a nota bene, Allen informed local farmers and fishermen that a “generous Price will be given … for all Sorts of Fresh Provisions.  Also for fresh Salmon, Trout, Fish, [and] Lobsters.”  That notice provided a preview of the quality and variety of food that customers could consume along with their beverages as they enjoyed a leisurely respite from their travels.

Allen first ran his advertisement on March 29, alerting the public that his new establishment would open on April 10.  It appeared in two consecutive issues before the coffeehouse opened, likely inciting anticipation among some of those “Gentlemen Travellers” who had bestowed “many Favours” on Allen through their patronage of his former endeavor.  Once the new enterprise opened, he ran the advertisement once again as a means of welcoming patrons and encouraging readers who had not yet visited to experience the coffeehouse for themselves.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 12, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (April 12, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (April 12, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (April 12, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 12, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 12, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 12, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 12, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 12, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (April 12, 1776).

April 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Packet (April 11, 1776).

“Just Published … by SAMUEL LOUDON.”

Samuel Loudon launched a new newspaper, the New York Packet, on January 4, 1776.  It lasted for about eight months before closing down just before the British occupation of New York.  The Adverts 250 Project featured subscription proposals for the newspaper that ran in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Gazette on December 27, 1775, and an announcement that Loudon “published the first Number of his News Paper” that ran in the New-York Journal on January 11, 1776.  In that latter entry, I stated that “surviving issues have not been digitized for greater access, so advertisements and other content from the New-York Packet will not appear in the Adverts 250 Project.”  I have since learned that the New York Packet has indeed been digitized and made available via the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.  When I discovered it there, I also learned that advertisements referred to the newspaper as the New-York Packet (hyphenating “New-York” like other newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution) yet the elaborate script in the masthead presented it as the New York Packet (without the hyphen).

New-York Packet (April 11, 1776).

Throughout the decade I have been producing the Adverts 250 Project, I have relied on four databases of digitized eighteenth-century American newspapers.  Archives of Maryland Online, sponsored by the Maryland State Archives, provides access to issues of the Maryland Gazette published in Annapolis between 1728 and 1839.  Colonial Williamsburg provides access to three newspapers, each named the Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg between 1736 and 1780.  In the 1760s and 1770s, two and sometimes three operated simultaneously.  Accessible Archives, now part of History Commons, provides access to several newspapers published in Charleston, including the South-Carolina Gazette, the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, and the South-Carolina and American General Gazette.  Readex/Newsbank’s America’s Historical Newspapers & Periodicals provides the most comprehensive access to early American newspapers, incorporating dozens of newspapers published throughout the colonies and new nation in the eighteenth century.  That collection, however, does not include the New York Packet.  I neglected to consult Chronicling America before declaring that the New York Packet has not been digitized.

Since then, I have acquired digital copies of all the issues of the New York Packet available via Chronicling America, examined them to identify advertisements that belong in the Slavery Adverts 250 Project and special features chronicling advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and made updates and revisions as necessary.  As I continue with the Adverts 250 Project, I will cross reference issues of early American newspapers available via Chronicling America with those in the other databases that have made this project possible.

Cheers to the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Digital Newspaper Program and the Library of Congress for making early American newspapers even more accessible to scholars, students, and the public!

Slavery Advertisements Published April 11, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

Massimo Sgambati made significant contributions to this entry as part of the Summer Scholars Program, funded by a fellowship from the D’Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in Summer 2025.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Maryland Gazette (April 11, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (April 11, 1776).

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New-York Journal (April 11, 1776).

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New-York Journal (April 11, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 11, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 11, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 11, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Guest Contribution

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

New York Packet (April 11, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 11, 1776).

April 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Journal (April 10, 1776).

“Printed, published, and now selling, by ROBERT BELL … LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE.”

It was an interesting turn of events in the feud over publishing Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that unfolded in Philadelphia.  On January 9, 1776, Robert Bell announced the publication of what would become the most popular political pamphlet of the era of the American Revolution.  At first, he was the only printer willing to publish such Paine’s radical arguments in favor of independence.  It did not take long for Paine and Bell to part ways over publishing a second edition, reportedly because Bell’s ledgers showed that he did not earn a profit on the first edition.  Paine, who claimed that he wished to donate his share of the proceeds to buy mittens for American soldiers involved in the invasion of Canada, instructed Bell not to publish a second edition.  Instead, he worked with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, on a new edition with bonus material.  Bell went ahead with his second edition anyway, pirated the additions that Paine made to the new edition, and released a companion pamphlet, “LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE,” that consisted of essays drawn from newspapers, none of them by Paine.

All of that and even more drama appeared in advertisements in several newspapers published in Philadelphia and even a couple in New York.  Initially, Bell and Paine addressed each other in open letters.  After the author had his say, Bell and the Bradfords exchanged barbs.  Bell ran advertisements for his second edition of Common Sense and related pamphlets in most of the Philadelphia’s newspapers, but not the Pennsylvania Journal.  Either he refused to give the Bradfords the advertising revenue or they refused to accept his advertisements.  Curiously, the Pennsylvania Journal did carry Bell’s advertisement for “LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE” on February 21, but it appeared alongside an advertisement for the Bradfords’ “NEW EDITION OF COMMON SENSE” that concluded with a warning: “The Pamphlet advertised by Robert Bell, entitled Additions to Common Sense, or by any other name he may hereafter call it, consists of pieces taken out of the News-papers, and not written by the author of Common Sense.”  No advertisement for any variations of Common Sense or related material published by Bell ran in the Pennsylvania Journal for seven weeks.  Then, on April 10, the advertisement from February 21 appeared once again, the type apparently still set.  For whatever reason, the Bradfords had not broken it down, suggesting that they thought it possible Bell’s notice might run again.  Richard Gimbel asserts that the “acrimonious quarrel … doubtless helped to make Paine’s Common Sense the most discussed and most widely circulated pamphlet in America.”[1]  Did the Bradfords have that in mind when they made decisions about whether and when to publish Bell’s advertisements for Common Sense and related material in the Pennsylvania Journal?

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 49.